CTC Media Seeks Acquisitions While Mulling Dividend Increase

By Manuel Baigorri -
Nov 16, 2012

CTC Media Inc. (CTC), the Russian company
that owns the CTC television channel, is seeking to acquire TV
production companies in Russia and a channel or a TV license in
Ukraine, its chief executive officer said.

“We would be interested in either acquiring a TV
production company or entering into some kind of collaboration
agreement to secure the pipeline of content,” Boris Podolsky
said in an interview at a conference organized by Morgan Stanley
in Barcelona today. “We’re talking with different companies in
Ukraine to acquire either a television channel for easily
hundreds of millions of dollars or a license for a few million
dollars.”

Shares fell 0.5 percent to $8.20 at 11:36 a.m. in New York,
headed for the lowest close since Sept. 4.

CTC Media’s board will probably discuss dividends at its
December meeting as the company’s cash pile has increased due to
the completion of investments, Podolsky said. The payout fell to
52 percent of net income this year from a previous 90 percent,
he said.

CTC Media, based in Moscow, “will have to put on hold our
plans to buy free-to-air channels in Russia at least for a
little while” because of issues related to the country’s
digitalization process, according to Podolsky. “We need to
understand how this whole thing will play out.”

The Nasdaq-listed company’s margin for earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is 30 percent and
it expects to “sustain those margins and if possible to
increase them,” Podolsky said.